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Loading... When You Come Homeby Nora Eisenberg
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. I expected more from this book and author... I found the book very difficult to keep reading. The story was very slow paced. While it showed many of the problems faced by our returning vets I could not get wrapped up in the characters. The basis for the story is good, but the characters were definitely lacking. Not a book I would recommend to others, but not the worst thing I ever read either. (  ) kathyw | Dec 3, 2009 |  "When You Come Home" grips you from the first page and does not let go. The book tells a sad and terrifying story of dysfunctional families, childhood grudges, government indifference, war and its effect on surviving soldiers and their loved ones. Yet its tone is uplifting. It is a book that does not gloss over pain and injustice, yet it will fill you with hope and make you believe that little acts of courage and kindness matter in the end. By the closing pages, nearly every character discovers that they are surrounded by those who love them and will lay down their life not to let them fall. The characters of Mimi, her son and adopted daughter and their friends are described in loving detail. It does not take long for the reader to feel that he really knows them and wants them to succeed. Especially Lily, a larger-than-life personality in such a small package. There were a few times when I wished the author had applied the same attention to detail when describing the characters' surroundings. For example, when Lily delivers a baby in Homer's hospital room and the author says simply "she cut the cord", my first question is "what with?" After all, hospitals do not usually provide surgical instruments for patients' use. But this does not really detract from the book. (  ) Krolik_A | Aug 11, 2009 | Was interesting story but found myself having to read it. It seemed very dry to me. I like the author though she does write good books (  ) fonders | Jul 31, 2009 | This book actually had promise. A compelling topic with timely relevance. I was hoping it would provide some insight into what soldiers go through in attempting to readjust to civilian life. However it really failed to deliver. The story was weak and overly sentimental, the characters flat and unappealing and the prose was clunky. Give this one a miss. ( ) gradvmedusa | Jul 27, 2009 | I started the book, then realized that it wasn't my type. So I decided instead of drudging through and forcing myself, I gave it to my friend who recently just got home from a violent tour in Iraq. He said that he enjoyed the book....so take what you will from that. beckylynn | Jul 23, 2009 | 
 When You Come Home by Nora Eisenberg is both a compassionate & political novel, depicting the story of Anthony Bravo, a brave marine reservist who returns home from the first Gulf War to face unforeseen realities that even his fearlessness in the dreadful streets of Iraq could not overcome. When he gets home, Lily Engels, an orphan that was raised in his home, quickly embraces him. At first, Tony is happy that the war is behind him, but the memories of what happened in the war & the impending illness he contacted still plague him, at times returning with a vengeance to his devastating mind.
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"In 1991, troops sent to Iraq for the first Gulf War returned home with a litany of physical, neurological, and psychological symptoms that collectively became known as Gulf War syndrome. Eisenberg bravely sheds light on the resultant devastation suffered by one small group of friends and their families...In a story that is, sadly, as pertinent as it is ageless, Eisenberg poignantly demonstrates that casualties of war occur both on and off the battlefield and ironically illustrates the vivid consequences when those in charge of veterans' postwar care fail to meaningfully 'support our troops'"--Booklist
When You Come Home is both a timeless love story and a timely political novel set in the year after the 1991 Gulf War. In the Gulf sands, surrounded by death and danger, marine reservist Anthony Bravo has thought only of Lily, the feisty orphan raised in his home, and when he comes home, their childhood affection flames into passionate love. Both have lost fathers to the Vietnam War, but now, safe and settled, they rejoice that war and loss are behind them at last. Or, so it seems. Soon Tony’s best friend, a career marine, suffers fevers and strange symptoms . . .
Blending war and politics with a human story, When You Come Home takes up a topic rare in American fiction, the First Gulf War and Gulf War syndrome, the disabling illness that followed a third of the troops home. Ultimately, the novel demonstrates that war devastates not only losers but winners, resounding with meaning as we consider not only our past but our present and future.
Nora Eisenberg infuses her work with pressing social and political themes, averting polemics through a distinctive poignancy and hilarity.
Nora Eisenberg holds a PhD from Columbia University and currently directs the City University of New York’s Faculty Publication Program. She is the author of two critically acclaimed novels, The War at Home and Just the Way You Want Me (Leapfrog Press). Her stories, essays, and reviews have appeared in The Village Voice, Partisan Review, Tikkun, and Los Angeles Times, among others.
"In her new novel, When You Come Home, Nora Eisenberg uses her estimable talent to explore the human cost of modern war. And thanks to that talent, her book is not only timely but timeless. It deserves a wide readership in this difficult age."—Robert Olen Butler
"Nora Eisenberg has given us an intimate portrait, both heart-breaking and eye-opening, of the young men and women whose lives were destroyed by the first Gulf War. Everyone who wants the war in Iraq to end tomorrow should read this book today."—Vivian Gornick
"Nora Eisenberg brilliantly uses the first Gulf War as a literary vehicle to convey the horrible realities that veterans and their families have to live with when "the war is over." From PTSD to Agent Orange to Gulf War Syndrome to Depleted Uranium, the reader will understand and feel the everlasting wounds, and the pain and destruction that war continues to inflict upon people way after victory is announced. When You Come Home paints a more accurate portrait than any official or glorifying account of war. It is a principled and beautifully written call to reason, to action, and to why we must embrace peace."—Camilo Mejía
"This book is great in every detail. It has drama, suspense, and even happiness throughout all the drama. I will suggest it to anyone that is looking for to enlighten his mind over the ponderous issues of war veterans in America: their plight, their endless vicissitudes that very few people seem to care about, apart for their close relatives. This book is a good read, one you could just sit down and read for hours on end."—CSMS Magazine
"If everyone reflected as realistically as Nora Eisenberg upon war and the men and women who fight those wars, we would all look at war differently. I urge you to read this book. The story's as relevant to all of us, to our veterans who deserve our best care, and to our politics today as it was in the 1960s and the 1990s."—Jude Nagurney Camwell, Iddybud Journal
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:24 -0400)
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